Lost Race
by Rewiel Amodie
Summary: A survivor of the Elven Smiths is found, confused and angered will she find her hope?


Snow fell harder that night, harder than she had ever seen before. Waves of shivers danced down her spine, making her wrap her cloak tightly around her body. With one hand holding the fabric and the other grasping the leather reigns of the horse firmly, she quietly made her way up the foothill that left the village. She felt cursed by the weather, but then it may have been a piece of good fortune. Thick as the snow was so far, it would cover up her tracks, also since her cloak was of a light, blue, ashen color, and her horse, white, she would blend in with the evening snow. A smile curled onto her lips. She may escape after all. Twisting her body to look back once more to look upon the small town, she could see in the center of the main square, lanterns and torches began it's fiery chain between the village men. There could already have been a few in the foothills already, tracking her. She had to make haste. Now. With a kick in the horse sides she rode up to the top. Snow poured and poured through the holy gaps of large branch trees, for a moment she felt relaxed. The forest gave off a blissful white glow against the black bark of the trees, making it a cold paradise.  
  
"Ay! There she is!" she whipped around to the shout. Paradise shattered like glass. A tracker had found her. How far down he was, she could not tell. It didn't matter, she needed to run and run now! She kicked her horse harder in the sides.  
  
Will this never end?  
  
The horse raced up the rest of the hill, so fast it blew her hood back revealing her black hair. Wind pounded in her ears, and cheeks giving her skin a burning sensation, her hazel eyes wince in pain. Her kind didn't seem to care about the cold, however though she never knew of life around them.  
  
Knowing she shouldn't, she looked back. Torch glows, were racing up the hill at swift paces. They were coming to close. She would have to fight a few off if she wished to survive. The sound of her sword coming out of it's sheath, in a soft hiss, made her blood flush hotly in her veins. Her sword gleamed of silver in the soft light from the snow. From afar she looked to be a winter mistress, deadly and beautiful, with little mercy for who ever approached her.  
  
A twig snapped behind a tree near her, her eyes darted to it, with her fist clenching the hilt of the sword. Slowly a human man stepped out from behind the tree. Tall, young, and fair, holding a bow, and arrow stretched tight.  
  
"Elf witch," his arrow gleamed and looks were ruined by his hoarse voice, "lay down your arms and concede to your sorcery on my father." His grip began to shake. He'd be lucky to shoot the tree next to her.  
  
" Ah, so your father is the man who is convinced I lay a curse on him?"  
  
"You have cursed all of us by being here." She sneered at him, and rode up closer to the boy, pointing the the sword at the level of his nose. His bow was shaking more than ever with fear. Even she became nervous at the thought of him losing control of his arrow and ending up shooting her horse, but he wouldn't have been given a bow and arrow if he did not learn control. More voices were drawing closer down the foothill.  
  
"Leave lad, and go back to your father." His bow relaxed. He would not shoot her. He was smart enough not too. With that she reared her horse around and took off, racing down the south side of the foothill, and never stopped.  
  
Hours must have passed when she finally stopped. A stream that escaped the cold frost of winter, lay babbling invitingly in the forest. She led her horse over to it, laughing silently as he drank heartily, and she patted his muscular neck.  
  
"Good ride my friend, I am in your debt." She said, sat down and leaned against a tree trunk. Snowstorm had passed to the west painting the moon's glow over the snow. She sat there pondering on where she would go, probably upwards north. While thinking this she twisted her ring round and round her ring finger. It was a silver thin ring with a single clear stone in the center, it was hard to remember who had given it to her, her mother perhaps, or her father. She never really knew either of them.  
  
Leaning her head back on the tree she let her eyes float up to the branches, the stars were out, Her skin tingles, and it wasn't the cold either, but her love for the stars and moon.  
  
"Love" she spoke aloud, softly, "something I shall never find but in the sky and Earth."  
  
Just then something above her, jumped from one branch to another. Quickly she stood up and drew her sword.  
  
"Who's there?" she called. No answer. "If someone be there, show yourself!" Willingly it seemed to reply. A figure, or so its seemed to be a human, started to leap from branch to branch down to the forest floor. Slowly she backed up, and waited for it to finish it's coarse down the tree. Once it leapt from the last branch, it raised itself to her. The figure, who she guessed was a human, stood cloaked in dark pine green, not moving, just stood there staring at her. A hand reached out from under the hood, to push back the hood, revealing a handsome elf. His blonde hair shined in the moonlight, and his blue eyes pierced her.  
  
"Who are you?" her voice whispered. He said nothing. Mists of breath from their mouths interlaced together and stirred together. Abruptly the elf took a step near her, she stepped back as a consequence to standing in a sword fighting position. Her eyes went up and down his body. No sword was held in his hand, no weapon that she could see of. Wait, her eyes caught a flash of white metal from the moon, under his cloak on the right.  
  
"Will you not speak?" she tried once more. He smirked, but his smirk turned flat and turned his head to something he heard. Slowly he reached for his sword that she had seen under his cloak. She saw her chance.  
  
Lunging towards him, she brought her sword down hard on him. The clang of their swords met at his quick reaction. He pushed her off him, and she charged him once more, and he reacted the same way as before. Attack, block, attack, block.  
  
"Will you wait?" he spoke. Her arm relaxed, not because he said too, for the reason that he was not mute, he had the ability to speak. While the time she stood to recoil her thoughts he easily grabbed her sword from her hand to keep her from attacking him once more. She reached fervently for her sword. He threw his sword down and grabbed her wrists.  
  
"Let me go! Give me my sword, villain!" She struggled in his grasp. Raising an eyebrow at her he held her sword high in the air.  
  
"This sword? That would be to easy for you." With that in a driving force he stabbed her sword in a tree trunk.  
  
"Why you felon, I'll have your head!" she screamed and pounced on his chest. He screamed, as they both fell down in the snow. She pinned him down, which this she would use to her advantage, and with full power, her fist hurled in the air and hit him square in the jaw. Consequently pain prickled through her hand. Jolted shock rang in his eyes, from pain and astonishment. One could tell she had hit a man before. Rolling over on top of her, he pinned her arms in legs down, keeping any more injury to him, away.  
  
"Ay! Friend! What are you doing?" a voice of a man's echoed from nearby. The elf ignored the call, and never took his eyes of the struggling she- elf.  
  
"You are being very stubborn."  
  
"Will you get off me!" she screamed.  
  
"May you promise to be still, Lady Codith, and I will!" he hissed. The body, the girl named Codith, stopped struggling under his arms. Stunned dressed her eyes when she looked up to him.  
  
"How do you," she asked in sheer bewilderment, "know my name?"  
  
"We know much about you, or believe too," the voice from behind came from a human ranger who walked up from behind, followed by two horses. The man's face had the scars of the sun, and hard weather, but his eyes appeared subsist, unmarked, tamed and patient. Walking over to the tree, he pulled Codith's sword with a hard tug.  
  
The elf stared down at Codith, his eyes a blue fire. She shuddered but did not look away, for her pride was a chain connecting the two pairs of eyes. Hot breath from his mouth warmed her lips.  
  
"You have a hard blow Lady Codith." He alleged softly. Then smiled before getting off of her, then holding out his hand to her. Uncertain to who these men are, and where they came from, she took it in a firm grip.  
  
"Who are you sirs? Where do you come from and why do you seek me? Furthermore tell me why." the man raised his hands to slow her down. So many questions needed answering. She didn't stop to breathe.  
  
"Answer our questions, and travel with us to Lorien, and we shall answer yours."  
  
"Sir, do you really believe me to trust you?"  
  
"Not yet, but you will, soon enough."  
  
"I hardly see that happening. Who are you?" Codith felt her dagger strapped on her thigh, under her dress. She felt the metal outline with her finger anxiously.  
  
"I am Strider, this is my companion." he began.  
  
"He can answer himself." She interrupted, turning her head away from Strider and back into the eyes of the elf.  
  
"Legolas," He said as he picked up his sword and put it back into it sheath, "and, perhaps if you heard our request from a fellow elf, you would come."  
  
"A fellow elf," she quirked and eyebrow, "Such as, you?"  
  
"We have no wish to harm you," he took a stepped forward towards Codith. This time she didn't step back, " Only to take you to safety, to Lothlorien, where the Lord and the Lady desire your help."  
  
"Help? What for?"  
  
Strider stepped, "Come with us and you shall know."  
  
"You must tell me now, otherwise I will not leave with you."  
  
"You promise as an Eregion elf, you shall go with us?"  
  
" Eregion? Are you inclining I am Eregion? How can you tell what runs through my veins, even when I know not of it. My story has been a mystery each and every day of my life," She spoke this to Aragorn and on it looked through the expression on her face, to herself as well.  
  
"Dear Lady, you, you're blood, is cherished, akin to adoring a jewel. I see the mark on your wrist," Codith looked down at her sleeve, and everything stopped. He had seen her mark? This cursed scar, when she had tried very hard to cover it. Lifting the fabric her heard pounded, until the blackness of the symbol shown. Another piece, to her almost forgotten past. A symbol of two vines, winding together, over a ring, she shuddered at the design. "You are an Elf Of Eregion, a last survivor of a destroyed race.you hold a key too."  
  
" I hold a key to nothing! Enough! I will not hear of this any longer!" she raged. In a moment she mounted her horse. The wind howled and her hair danced around her.  
  
"Leave me be!" Codith screamed helplessly. She wanted them to go away, she wanted to forget everything. Everything, which had happened to her, that scarred her, ruined her.  
  
"Codith you don't understand how much we need you!" Strider began. He knew that if she would just allow him to explain everything would be fine. It was her fear of the past that covered all hope.  
  
"No! I will not listen," she turned her horse around to take off in a gallop, before she did she turned one last time to Strider, " for I've tried too long to find answers, and it has only destroyed me." She fled.  
  
"Aragorn, run down the east side I'll run down the west," mounting his horse, Legolas wasn't going to give up, " We can catch her!"  
  
"We cannot make her come with us."  
  
Silence deafened amid Strider and Legolas. Failure gripped Legolas's shoulders in the vein of claws.  
  
I've watched her for too long to have her runaway in panic.  
  
  
  
Faster and faster Legolas ran, his heart beating rapidly with will, and strength of his home. Codith was very wrong to think of running. He would only follow after. Dodging another branch he raced up a tree trunk, it was a forest/within/ a forest of barren branches. Legolas searched the floor of the forest. His heart leapt. Horse running wild, it surprised him she could hold on to a horse of such power. He'd be timely to catch her. Leaping, tree, to tree he could feel his speed increasing as his fingers tingled around every curve, of every branch he clung, and pushed off of. Nearing Codith, he saw her slow her horse down to a stop, and look around. Perfect.  
  
Bounding from his hiding place in the trees he threw her off the horse, to the snowy ground. Legolas laid there for a moment, no scream, and no yell. Slowly he raised his head from her shoulder. Dead? Observing her he looked for signs of breathing but there were none. He put his hand to her closed lips and opened them. Putting his fingers through the airway he felt the tiny wind of breath. She was alive. He had only knocked her unconscious. Legolas took her in his arms and carried her, a sound in the distance. Aragorn's call.  
  
  
  
Warmth spilled out upon her face and body. A moan came from her dried lips, and she clutched whatever blanket was put about her. Opening her eyes to a crackling fire she raised herself on one elbow to determine her surroundings. Snow lay no longer on the ground. The air wasn't as cold, though it existed to be moist. Feeling the wetness of the ground soak into her sleeves, Codith sat up completely.  
  
"Ah, Lady Codith," glancing up she nearly passed out again. Legolas, standing, arms crossed and leaning against a tree, "you're up. Feeling better? Sorry for pushing you so hard."  
  
"You! I am going to slaughter you." Sharp pain burned inside her chest, she groaned and laid herself back down.  
  
"I am sorry for that as well," to her surprise he winced, Legolas actually seemed to care, " only a rib or two is broken, Strider dressed them. He is a healer. You should be well in a week's time." Legolas knew her next reaction would not be a pleasant one. Codith knew her bandages were not over her clothing, she felt the outlining of her bindings under her chemise.  
  
"He went under my clothing?" she yelled.  
  
"You needed to be tended. "Legolas came over and sat down next to her. Giving her a soft smile, he reached under his cloak pulling out a piece of cloth rolled. Legolas reached for his short sword, which was always near his side. Confused at what he was doing, Codith watched Legolas reach into the heart of the fire, clinking at something with the sword. He pulled out a bowling pot of water, and placed it in front of him. He rolled out the piece of fabric. In the center of the material lay a plant with purple and yellowish flowers. Codith tired again to raise herself upon her elbow. A few strands of hair fell in front of her face. Too much in pain, she didn't dare to move another muscle to move them.  
  
"Am I being kidnapped?" she asked like it was nothing special being captive.  
  
"Don't you care what happens to you?" he said, staring at her.  
  
"Of course I do. Any living breathing thing would, why would you ask such a senseless question? I thought elves where wise, but now that I met you, I am not so sure."  
  
"That makes two of us."  
  
"You didn't answer first question."  
  
"Aragorn, would say 'No, were are not.' However I consider you my prisoner until you listen to us."  
  
"Aragorn?"  
  
"Strider."  
  
Legolas brought out a bottle and spoon, from his sack. He poured the bottle of mixture into the bowling pot of water and stirred. Then, he picked up the plant, and bit the root. Spitting out the end into a near bush, he squeezed the reaming root over the water. One, tiny drop, no bigger than fingernail, splashed into the hot water and once more he stirred.  
  
"Drink two spoonfuls of this." He handed one full spoon to her already.  
  
"Forget it, I am not drinking that." Legolas rolled his eyes.  
  
"It's Wolfsbane. It will help the pain." Codith tried to sit up more one her elbow but could not.  
  
"I can't move, the pain is too great," she tried again and strangled a scream, "feels like a bloody dagger in my ribs."  
  
Legolas moved over to her side more, with spoon and pot in hand. He let his hand slide under her head, and tilted her mouth to the spoon. She sipped, swallowed, it tasted bitter on her tongue.  
  
"I know something else is in the water than Wolfsbane."  
  
"Whiskey."  
  
"Oh." She huffed at her fallen locks, and moved uncomfortably. She closed her eyes. Burning from dryness.  
  
Should I listen to them? I don't want to go through more pain, than I have already before.  
  
Something soft brushed her cheek, and her eyes flashed open. Legolas was leaning into her, closer, his hand upon her face . He knew he made a mistake. Instantly she backed her head away.  
  
"What are you doing?" she questioned curtly.  
  
"Your hair.was in your face." he replied softly. Codith's eyes darted to the grown after his comment. Spooning up one more, he allowed the liquid to flow down her mouth. "Lady Codith, you know your not our prisoner, I am only wishing, you will help us."  
  
"Alright, I listen to your story." 


End file.
